Friday, 21 May 2010

Except for a few dozen paintings, the fact is that Leonardo da Vinci almost never finished anything he started. He made copious notes about inventions which never took off the ground. He spent two years making drawings to illustrate an anatomy book that was never published in his lifetime. He also made designs for churches that were never built.

If you have a talented son who leads his life in imitation of Leonardo da Vinci's, your patience might not outlast your disappointments. You will come to regret your son's inability to focus on a specific field and further his career. You will also have to endure the sight of your son's being surpassed in honours and wealth by others who possess less talent but more determination.

Reality is structured in a way that rewards constant work and stable purpose. Zigzagging can be psychologically rewarding, but seldom leads to extraordinary achievement. Even highly talented individuals need time to acquire expertise and establish themselves in the market. Customers pay for products and services, not for unfinished designs.

When you study History, you will hear many great things about Leonardo da Vinci. Art teachers will tell you about Leonardo's genius, physicians about his prodigious knowledge of human anatomy, and engineers about his visionary design of a flying machine.

To be continued in Part 4

[Text: http://johnvespasian.blogspot.com]

[Image by tiny_packages under Creative Commons Attribution License. See the license terms under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us]

Except for a few dozen paintings, the fact is that Leonardo da Vinci almost never finished anything he started. He made copious notes about inventions which never took off the ground. He spent two years making drawings to illustrate an anatomy book that was never published in his lifetime. He also made designs for churches that were never built.

If you have a talented son who leads his life in imitation of Leonardo da Vinci's, your patience might not outlast your disappointments. You will come to regret your son's inability to focus on a specific field and further his career. You will also have to endure the sight of your son's being surpassed in honours and wealth by others who possess less talent but more determination.

Reality is structured in a way that rewards constant work and stable purpose. Zigzagging can be psychologically rewarding, but seldom leads to extraordinary achievement. Even highly talented individuals need time to acquire expertise and establish themselves in the market. Customers pay for products and services, not for unfinished designs.

When you study History, you will hear many great things about Leonardo da Vinci. Art teachers will tell you about Leonardo's genius, physicians about his prodigious knowledge of human anatomy, and engineers about his visionary design of a flying machine.

To be continued in Part 4

[Text: http://johnvespasian.blogspot.com]

[Image by tiny_packages under Creative Commons Attribution License. See the license terms under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us]

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

JOHN VESPASIAN is the author of eight books about rational living, including "When Everything Fails, Try This" (2009), "Rationality Is the Way to Happiness" (2009), "The Philosophy of Builders: How to Build a Great Future with the Pieces from Your Past" (2010), "The 10 Principles of Rational Living" (2012), "Rational Living, Rational Working: How to Make Winning Moves When Things Are Falling Apart" (2013), "Consistency: The Key to Permanent Stress Relief" (2014), "On Becoming Unbreakable: How Normal People Become Extraordinarily Self-Confident" (2015), and "Thriving in difficult times: Twelve lessons from Ancient Greece to improve your life today" (2016).